The most important tournament of my life: Sachin

Ahmedabad, March 23: Sachin Tendulkar has come clean with his perspective on the World Cup 2011. He has admitted that this is indeed the biggest, most important tournament of his life.

"Yes, it is the most important tournament of my life," Tendulkar had told his closest friends, and most in the team are also aware of his determination.

The Little Master has participated in 6 World Cups thus far, a record originally set by Pakistan batting great Javed Mianded. Tendulkar who made his World Cup debut in 1992 has transformed into the bulwark of the Indian batting, becoming one of the most feared players in the game.

While he is the proud owner of virtually every batting record there is, for him a World Cup Champion tag is the one thing missing in his closet-full of accolades. He missed out on the T20 World Title when he withdrew from the tournament along with Sourabv Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as M S Dhoni fashioned a memorable triumph.

At 37 and with the clamour from various quarters for his retirement getting louder, he knows that the moment to win the Cup is now or never and he has to seize it while it is still in his grasp.

Like always, though, he is making sure that it doesn't become a self-before-team cause. "Everyone wants the team to do well," he has told his mates. "I need to focus all my energies on how to go about doing my job."

And he has certainly not lost the verve toward his objective, devising and perfecting strategies to better his game and spending extra time at nets to do so.Oneindia Cricket